SKOPJE NORTH MACEDONIA Skopje Lab Innovation Brought by You

SKOPJE NORTH MACEDONIA Skopje Lab Innovation brought by you

SKOPJE NORTH MACEDONIA 546,824 INHABITANTS (2016)

Until recently, the city of Skopje operated according to a traditional, top-down governance model. This approach, however, bred public mistrust of distant government institutions and a low level of satisfaction with the quality of the public services it offered1.

1. https://goo.gl/Xa3xiS

24 Skopje North Macedonia | Skopje Lab

Faced with complex societal challenges and increased Description of the case study’s demand for better public services, Skopje decided to approach take off on an innovation journey to make the city a better place to live. Inspired by successful stories from Skopje Lab is currently a pilot project with a physical around the world, the city of Skopje with support space within a municipal building, envisioned as a of the United Nations Development Programme space and set of protocols that will enable a coming (UNDP), opened the first public innovation lab on the together of citizens, the public administration, the Balkans, called the City of Skopje Innovation Centre – private sector and civil society to brainstorm, develop SkopjeLab. and test ideas, experiment as well as and most importantly, learn The lab is currently working on SkopjeLab focuses from each other. designing solutions to important issues such as air pollution, public on individuals and Envisioned as an experimental services, waste management ‘human-centred’ and collaborative space where systems and smart city citizens (business community, development. These issues also design civil and public organisations and face other European cities, which institutions and the academia) will thus also be able to benefit from Skopje’s findings. and front-line public servants will join forces to design, prototype and test public The manifesto to always co-create and co-design services, products or projects, SkopjeLab works to: is incredibly important for the Lab; solutions need to be carefully designed with input from different ZZ Deliver new solutions on pressing issues target groups including a strong emphasis on the through creative and innovative projects with participation of citizens. Focused on individuals and multiple and diverse stakeholders based on ‘human-centred’ design, the use of this methodology design thinking and prototyping/piloting in a public setting is very beneficial. It includes: ZZ Develop new, or redesign existing, public ZZ Discovering challenges and possibilities services as a means to increase satisfaction and reduce resource mobilisation (time, money etc) ZZ Co-designing (generating new ideas) ZZ Build capacity and knowledge of Skopje’s ZZ Testing (prototyping, experimenting and public administration, especially in terms of piloting) innovation, creating innovation champions ZZ Measuring (collecting data on what works and inside the organisation and sparking public what can be improved) sector entrepreneurship ZZ Effective implementation (of an upgraded ZZ Enable new communication practices as a solution if there is one) means to provide outreach and thus increase ZZ Adoption and spread of the innovation, its satisfaction & user numbers development process and results on many ZZ Enable partnership development between and levels with the civil and private sector ZZ Systemic change and innovation capacity building Empowered by the newly refreshed vision of the city of Skopje to make innovation an everyday practice, SkopjeLab is expected to improve sustainability and urban resilience through its activities and coordination and cooperation with other partners. SkopjeLab’s primary goal is to design innovative services or solutions that will improve the quality of life in Skopje.

25 New governance models for creative, sustainable and circular cities

Impact and results Transferability SkopjeLab enables a coming together of citizens, the ZZ It’s crucial to target the right stakeholders public administration, the private sector and civil society inside of the public administration and work to brainstorm, develop and test ideas, experiment and with them. They have been waiting for an learn from each other. SkopjeLab is therefore operating as an interface between governments and citizens opportunity like this and will recognise a to support and co-develop public services and new valuable partner in you. However, a push and social enterprises and bring in additional resources and constant patient work is needed. networks: ZZ It’s important to not just focus on current projects and activities but to also plant seeds SkopjeLab shows a new way of doing of innovation amongst colleagues. It’s the small things. This is then used to spread things that you need to start with first. a pro-innovation culture inside the ZZ Political commitment is important as well. If organisation, creating and supporting there is no clear vision alignment then issues new innovative projects with the might appear. goal of empowering the public ZZ Methodology is key. You need to design your administration. solution around all of your interested users, citizens, companies, etc. Don’t be afraid of the By reducing hierarchy, focusing time it will take to interview and ask whether on design approaches, promoting what you thought was the real problem is the appropriate levels of risk-taking in actual one, and whether your solution is truly organisations, SkopjeLab helps public well thought-out or lacks a certain something. administrators overcome the most Prototypes and pilots might fail but it’s better common structural as well as process to have spent a small amount of money and oriented challenges. time on designing a bad solution than to rush into a full pledge and end up with a disaster of a SkopjeLab helps public servants product or service. strengthen the cooperation with citizens and businesses in Skopje and will help them see how services could be made more valuable to people while making use of people’s own networks and resources.

Early evidence from this experience show that labs as a new model of collaboration between the government and citizens can address the problem of lack of civic engagement and influence in policy making. SkopjeLab showcases the usefulness of bringing citizens’ perspectives to decision-makers at all levels in the city1.

1. https://bit.ly/2EiOAl9

26 Skopje North Macedonia | Skopje Lab

Management level and partners Budget and financing The realisation of the project is a joint venture As of December 2017, €150,000 had been obtained between the UNDP and the city of Skopje. The physical through the UNDP and partners. This was used for space in which the SkopjeLab is located currently the setup of the lab, external contractors as well as for is shared with the Citizen Information Centre, but two big pilot projects related to waste management from the second half of 2019 when the city will and air pollution (Skopje’s number one problems). move to a new building, SkopjeLab will get its own From 2018 SkopjeLab is financed by the City of Skopje. space. SkopjeLab is an integral sector in Skopje’s local government, managed by SmartUp Social Innovation Future plans and sustainability Lab, a nongovernmental organization, under coordination of the City of Skopje and UNDP There SkopjeLab is willing to work with anyone interested are four consultants from the NGO engaged with this in making Skopje a better place to live. SkopjeLab is project, project manager & innovation consultant, IT not a political organisation and as a part of the city of specialist, partnership development specialist, social Skopje they have great access to potential partners. media/event management expert. In order to ensure These are great factors for growth. The use of the good dissemination and partnership, the team has methodology and its success are already documented grown by reaching out to ‘innovation champions’, and thus can be replicated in other parts of the city as public administration employees that have shown well as other cities. In the long term, SkopjeLab aims incredible interest and willingness in innovation and to transform the Innovation Lab into a Policy Lab, that excellency. will, by bringing new approaches from data science to Through their work, the consultants on a daily basis user-centred design, work as a research and design pass on knowledge and build internal capacities testing ground for policy innovation on different between all of the city employees that they work, talk levels, including national government. or partner with. And vice-versa, the consultants gain a better grasp of the complex challenges the public administration is facing as well as valuable data and insight on protocols, policies and activities. The lab undertakes and coordinates the project while the city of Skopje provides data, assistance and a formal acceptance. Partners include other public enterprises, educational and civil organisations, private companies. Some of them are: The Public Enterprise Communal Hygiene, Faculty for Technical Science and Engineering (FINKI), Fund for Innovation and Technological Development, Public Transport Enterprise JSP, Microsoft Macedonia, Macedonian Academic and Art Association, HASELT, NOVA, Sumnal, etc. It is crucial to mention that for this model to work: ZZ A great commitment towards innovation has to be in place in regard to the higher ranked decision makers in the local government Contact person Z Z Strong capacity for innovation, project Sofija Bogeva, Coordinator of SkopjeLab management and partnership outreach has to [email protected] be present amongst the employees in the lab, Lovren Markic, City of Skopje including having a great personal network and [email protected] portfolio before joining the team Jasmina Belcovska Tasevska, UNDP [email protected]